Ricky Holmes has expressed his delight at returning to Southend after a 15-year absence and is now determined to keep his boyhood club in the English Football League.

Southend released Holmes as a teenager in 2006, but the 33-year-old has since gone on to enjoy a successful professional career and has made over 300 senior appearances.

“It’s been known over the years that I support Southend,” Holmes told the club’s website after signing a deal with Shrimpers until the end of the season.

“I’m from the area and one day I said I’d hopefully come back after getting released as a kid, and thankfully it’s happened.

“When you come back to your local club, especially the one that released you as a kid, you’ve always got a point to prove and I managed to do that a few times.

“Now that I’ve got the shirt on I’ll hopefully score a few goals and get the assists we need to start winning games.”

Holmes slipped into non-league football at Chelmsford after leaving Southend.

But he bounced back from that initial disappointment to play for Barnet, Portsmouth, Northampton, Charlton, Sheffield United and Oxford in the EFL.

He left Northampton in January after signing an appearance-related contract with the Cobblers and has spent the last two weeks training at Southend.

“It’s great to sign,” Holmes said. “It’s been a good week of training with a game in there as well to show that I’m fully fit and I can’t wait to get going on Saturday.

“The games are coming thick and fast so hopefully I can bring a lot to the team.

“When you’re training you only really look forward to games as a footballer and until you’ve signed you can’t look forward to that.”

On Southend’s relegation battle at the foot of Sky Bet League Two, Holmes believes his experience of similar campaigns will help them.

He said: “When I broke into the professional game from non-league I was in a Barnet team that were struggling at the wrong end of the table and we survived both times.

“So hopefully I can bring the experience, know-how and galvanise the group.

“The results have been good of late, so hopefully we can continue that and I can bring a lot to the team.”